Stage 1 - May 9: Genova - Alba, 143 km

Who's The Man? I'm The Man!

Petacchi crushes all in first sprint; Pollack grabs Maglia Rosa

As he passed over the finish line in Alba today after a stupendous sprint,
Ale-Jet Petacchi pointed at his chest four times in a gesture of pride, clearly
telling one and all that once again, 'I'm the best and baddest sprinter'. He
threw his hands in the air for a victory salute, then kissed his index fingers.
Well, Petacchi can afford to boast after his tremendous year in 2003 and it
sure looks like he's on the road to another one in 2004.

It's sometimes said that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Last year on Stage 1 of the Giro d'Italia, Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo)
took the sprint stage win on his way to winning five stages. This year, Petacchi
showed right away that he is still the man to beat in the final rush, but today,
the Fassa Bortolo rider was also motivated by anger at the irregular riding
of Australian Robbie McEwen (Lotto-Domo).

"I don't why he pulled that move", said Petacchi of McEwen's dramatic right
to left switch with 250 meters to go. "It's not in the rules that (McEwen) can
make that kind of move - if he had come closer a few centimetres closer, he
would have chopped my front wheel!"

Robbie's rad move gave Petacchi some extra adrenalin, even if the Aussie was
going backwards in the last 50 meters and ended up fourth. After venting at
McEwen, Petacchi made an emotional dedication to his former Fassa Bortolo roommate,
the late Denis Zanette.

Although Mario Cipollini (Domina Vacanze) had hoped for more today, Re Leone
was only 14th in the final rush. Cipo always builds form as the Giro goes on
and today, he just didn't seem very comfortable with the cut and thrust of the
Giro's first mass sprint. Well placed on his teammate Aug's wheel with 700m
to go, Cipo ended up easing off with 200m to go. "It was a nice sprint, but
with some funny moves, maybe too many funny moves. I thought I was in good position
but ended up being chopped, so that's the way it ended up."

Cipo understands the reason for finishing circuits, but he doesn't have to
like them. "The reception today was crazy on the spectacular circuit, but there
were some dead corners that really stretched things out and it was hard for
(Domina Vacanze) to take control of the sprint."

Although McEwen's move was reviewed by the Commissaire's panel, no relegation
was made, perhaps because McEwen ended up out of the money today.

With a great sprint of his own today in Alba, German Olaf Pollack, runner-up
to Brad McGee (FDJeux.com) yesterday in Genova used his 12 second time bonus
for second place to strip the Maglia Rosa from McGee. The taciturn, relatively
unknown Pollack, a fast sprinter and former World Team Pursuit champion said
post-stage that "I'm very happy with this and I have to thank my team for all
the good work they did for me."

Pollack, a 30 year old from Berlin, will start tomorrow in Novi Ligure in
the pink tunic and hopes to hang on to the Maglia Rosa for at least one day.

How it unfolded

On a sunny, windy morning in Genova, the Giro d'Italia peloton gathered in
the Piazza della Vittoria. In the background were attractive ornamental plantings
that represented Genova's symbolic Tre Caravelle (Nina, Pinta & Santa Maria)
that left town headed west 512 years ago, commanded by local sea captain Cristoforo
Columbo. As the spirit of Marco Pantani may have soared above the race, the
Giro peloton rolling west on the via Aurelia towards Savona, the first hour
was covered in the relaxed pace of 33.5 km/h. Contributing to the festive note
were the kooky clown noses the riders wore, to commemorate Fondazione Theodora.
Like by the Robin Williams film "Patch Adams", Fondazione Theodora provides
clowns to help sick children who are in hospital.

At the days first and only GPM after 47km at the summit of the Colle di Cadibona,
Fabian Wegmann (Gerolsteiner) took the first points towards the Maglia Verde
of Best Climber ahead of Freddy Gonzalez and Cristian Moreni (Alessio-Bianchi).

Ten kilometres later, Marlon Perez (Colombia-Selle Italia) took off solo on
the ascent of the Tetti di Montezemolo and quickly ground out a lead as the
road passed from Liguria into Piemonte. There was not much of a chase behind,
so Perez gained 3'15 with 56 km to go, but eventually the sprinters teams began
to ride. Fassa Bortolo took the responsibility first and by the Intergiro line
with 48 km to race, the classy Colombian still had almost 2'00 on the peloton,
where Crescenzo d'Amore (Acqua e Sapone) took the second place points ahead
of Fred Rodriguez.

When the chasing peloton arrived in Alba, Perez still had a margin of 0'45
with four finishing circuits of 5 km each remaining. The super silver train
of Fassa Bortolo was on the front, with Massimo Codol and Volodimir Gustov riding
hard tempo for Ale-Jet Petacchi. With 3 laps to go, Perez had 0'34 lead as Domina
Vacanze moved up front. Alessio Galletti and the rest of the Domina boys had
honed their sprinting train battling Health Net two weeks ago in the Tour de
Georgia, and were clearly up to the battle with Fassa Bortolo, Domo, Lampre
and the other sprinters squads. Gerolsteiner was riding for Olaf Pollack, who
had a chance to take the Maglia Rosa from McGee if he finished first or second
and grabbed the 20" or 12" time bonus.

Perez was finally caught with 6km to go after 70km of liberty and as the bell
rang for the last circuit, the struggle for position was on. Every sprinters'
team was looking for space, but the main battle was between Fassa Bortolo. With
3km to go on the tight streets in the centre of Alba, Fassa put it in overdrive
and stretched the peloton into Indian file at 60km/h. Sacchi and Tosatto were
hammering hard, with Ongarato and Velo ready to lead out Petacchi. McEwen and
Cipo were looking for Petacchi's wheel under the 1 km flag as Ongarato peeled
off, while Cipo's leadout man Aug and McEwen battled away behind Velo and Petacchi
with 700m to go.

At 400m, Aug tried to bring Cipo in position to anticipate Petacchi's jump,
but his move was too early and on an uphill rise. Velo matched Aug's pace up
front with 300m left, then Petacchi grabbed Cipo's leadout man's wheel. Cipo
eased off as McEwen powered through the gap on the right opened by Petacchi's
move to the centre of the road.

Suddenly, McEwen moved left sharply, headed for the left side of the road.
He chopped Aug and Petacchi, who went by McEwen on the right with a powerful
surge into the lead. Pollack went by next, while a fast-closing Crescenzo D'Amore
(Acqua Sapone) took third with the final time bonus for 0'08.

At the post-stage protocol, Wegmann was awarded the Green Jersey for Best
Climber, while Perez donned the Blue Intergiro jersey. Petacchi made two podium
visits; one for the stage win and one to don the purple points jersey, and Pollack
saved the best for last as he took his first Maglia Rosa, the first-ever for
a Gerolsteiner rider.

Stage 2 - May 10: Novi Ligure-Pontremoli, 184km

Monday's Stage 2 offers
more tough racing across the narrow, twisting backroads of Liguria, where a
dangerous break could get away early. Stage 2 crosses the famous mushroom growing
woods of Val di Taro before the crucial final 11km ascent of the Passo del Brattello
20km before the finish in Pontremoli. There are two climbs to tackle: Passo
del Bocco (956m, 15.3 km at 5%) and Passo del Brattello (953m), 11 km at 5.4%).